US carriers T-Mobile and Verizon are reportedly in talks with regional mobile operator UScellular over the acquisition of assets, including spectrum.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal yesterday, T-Mobile is said to be closing in on a deal to buy a chunk of the regional carrier for more than $2 billion, taking over some operations and wireless spectrum licenses.
It's reported that T-Mobile could close a deal as soon as the end of this month.
Discussions between Verizon and UScellular, over a separate transaction, are expected to take longer to formalize, added the WSJ.
The US regulators will probe either deal, though the nature of the split-sale transactions improves both carriers' claims it won't negatively impact competition.
UScellular is one of the biggest regional cell carriers outside the big three of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. It serves four million mobiles across 21 US states, in mostly rural areas.
With a market value of around $3 billion, the carrier owns more than 4,000 cell towers. It's not thought to be interested in selling these assets, reports the WSJ.
UScellular also owns a range of spectrum including 600 and 700 MHz, cellular, PCS, AWS, CBRS, 3.45 GHz, C-band, as well as 24, 28, 37, and 39 GHz bands, per a New Street Research (NRS) report last year.
Dish Network was linked to a takeover of UScellular last summer, though this looks unlikely given the former's current financial struggles.
T-Mobile's interest comes weeks after it entered into a joint venture (JV) with EQT Infrastructure to acquire fiber-to-the-home platform Lumos. the telco plans to invest $950 million in the JV to acquire a 50 percent equity stake and all existing fiber customers, with the funds invested by T-Mobile being used by Lumos for future fiber builds.
